'Wait a minute!' puffs VMware as it trots after Amazon, Microsoft in US gov cloud grasp bid

Virtzilla proclaims affection for FedRAMP certification

It feels like every company is pushing cloud computing on the hoi polloi, but they all recognize the need to give the US government something special – and VMware is no different.

The virtualization specialist announced today it is pursuing a crucial federal certification known as FedRAMP with help from managed hosting biz Carpathia, all so that it can tout a cloud system to Uncle Sam. The resulting service, once the FedRAMP cert is hanging framed on the wall, will be called the VMware vCloud Government Service provided by Carpathia (what's that, VvCGSC? vCGS? CGSpbC?)

Two conditions are that only US personnel can fiddle with the gear, and that the tech is served from systems provided by an organization with experience in dealing with federal agencies, namely Carpathia.

The attempt to gain a FedRAMP Authority to Operate certificate follows moves by rivals Microsoft , HP, and Amazon to rack up FedRAMP support for their clouds as they compete for government workloads. Neither Google or Rackspace have FedRAMP certification.

VMware said in a canned announcement that Carpathia's cloud will be powered by VMware vSphere, and "will provide the security and compliance assurance of FedRAMP authorization by using Carpathia's extensive experience delivering compliant solutions for government agencies."

The virty company also said the cloud cluster will be built using the same "architecture" as its vCloud Hybrid Service Public Cloud, but this does not tell us much as VMware hasn't yet disclosed what's inside that beast.

FedRAMP is a certification that, once granted, simplifies the process by which government agencies can consume remotely provisioned software and hardware. The Carpathia cloud will also support an alphabet soup of regulations and standards, including FISMA, DIACAP, ITAR, FIPS, SOC, and HIPAA.

VMware anticipates that its VvCGSC service will be ready for action in the second half of 2014. ®